What Information is Useful for Cattle Feeders? What Does MPR Do for Us?

Livestock Production/Industries,

Forward Contracting and Captive Supplies - Why So Many Cattle Producers Are Willing To Do It

Livestock Production/Industries, Marketing,

Geodynamic implications for zonal and meridional isotopic patterns across the northern Lau and North Fiji Basins

We present new Sr-Nd-Pb-Hf-He isotopic data for sixty-five volcanic samples from the northern Lau and North Fiji Basin. This includes forty-seven lavas obtained from forty dredge sites spanning an east-west transect across the Lau and North Fiji basins, ten ocean island basalt (OIB)-type lavas collected from seven Fijian islands, and eight OIB lavas sampled on Rotuma. For the first time we are able to map clear north-south and east-west geochemical gradients in 87Sr/86Sr across the northern Lau and North Fiji Basins: lavas with the most geochemically enriched radiogenic isotopic signatures are located in the northeast Lau Basin, while signatures of geochemical enrichment are diminished to the south and west away from the Samoan hotspot. Based on these geochemical patterns and plate reconstructions of the region, these observations are best explained by the addition of Samoa, Rurutu, and Rarotonga hotspot material over the past 4 Ma. We suggest that underplated Samoan material has been advected into the Lau Basin over the past ∼4 Ma. As the slab migrated west (and toward the Samoan plume) via rollback over time, younger and hotter (and therefore less viscous) underplated Samoan plume material was entrained. Thus, entrainment efficiency of underplated plume material was enhanced, and Samoan plume signatures in the Lau Basin became stronger as the trench approached the Samoan hotspot. The addition of subducted volcanoes to the Cook-Austral Volcanic Lineament material, first from the Rarotonga hotspot, then followed by the Rurutu hotspot, contributes to the extreme geochemical signatures observed in the northeast Lau Basin

Stoke-on-Trent Opportunity Area Programme Improving Outcomes for Early Years ‘Understanding the World – Area of Learning’

This is a Stoke-on-Trent Opportunity Area funded project. The Opportunity Area Programme seeks to improve social mobility for children and young people, to break the link between social background and destination. Stoke-on-Trent is one of 12 areas selected for additional support from the DfE, working through a partnership of local leaders. The project relates to improving outcomes in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) to give children the best possible start in life and learning. Data shows that only 71% of pupils achieve or exceed the expected standard against the Understanding the World Area of Learning which incorporates three Early Learning Goals (ELGs). Children in the most deprived wards are least likely to achieve the standard

Re-introducing the Cambridge Group Family Reconstitutions

English Population History from Family Reconstitution 1580–1837 was important both for its scope and its methodology. The volume was based on data from family reconstitutions of 26 parishes carefully selected to represent 250 years of English demographic history. These data remain relevant for new research questions, such as studying the intergenerational inheritance of fertility and mortality. To expand their availability the family reconstitutions have been translated into new formats: a relational database, the Intermediate Data Structure (IDS) and an episode file for fertility analysis. This paper describes that process and examines the impact of methodological decisions on analysis of the data. Wrigley, Davies, Oeppen, and Schofield were sensitive to changes in the quality of the parish registers and cautiously applied the principles of family reconstitution developed by Louis Henry. We examine how these choices affect the measurement of fertility and biases that are introduced when important principles are ignored

“Understanding the World”: a pilot study of effective practice and provision in early years settings

This small-scale study explored effective practice and provision in early years settings to support children’s learning. The research was funded by an Opportunity Area programme, a government policy for dealing with social mobility through education. The research investigated the experiences and perceptions of early years practitioners in relation to the Understanding the World area of learning which incorporates three of the seventeen Early Learning Goals contained within the Early Years Foundation Stage. These Early Learning Goals are; ‘People and Communities’, ‘The World’ and ‘Technology’. The study was conducted within the city of Stoke-on-Trent in England where official published data reveals only 71% of pupils achieve or exceed the expected standard against the Understanding the World area of learning where the national average is 83%. The research adopted a mixed methods approach comprising an online survey and semi-structured interviews with practitioners working with children in private and maintained day nurseries and primary school reception classes where good and outstanding results are achieved for the city’s disadvantaged children. The findings of the study include the identification of best practice examples along with features of effective provision. Barriers to children’s progression and attainment of these specific Early Learning Goals were also ascertained. The implications for practice and further research are presented

The Nakanai Mountain Ranges of East New Britain, Papua New Guinea

This E-Book on the Nakanai Mountains of East New Britain is in four parts. The first section provides an overview of the karst and cave attributes which led to the listing of Nakanai on the Tentative World Heritage List in a Serial Site known as The Sublime Karsts of Papua New Guinea. The next section provides a brief history of the region involving European encounters. This is followed with a brief overview of the archaeology of East New Britain. The fourth section highlights some of the unique flora and fauna of the Nakanai. The final section includes the UNESCO Justification for Significance on the Tentative World Heritage List

The Nakanai Mountain Ranges of East New Britain Papua New Guinea. E: Booklet Version 2

NOTES ON THE E-BOOKLET VERSION TWO Between 2016- 2019, a multidisciplinary team of researchers1 from Australia and Papua New Guinea worked in collaboration with local communities to document the cultural values of the Nakanai Mountains and their inextricable link to the spectacular natural landscape. This research aims to contribute to a standalone nomination to the UNESCCO Tentative World Heritage List of the Nakanai Karst Area (NKA) and elevate its recognition as a cultural landscape of outstanding significance. The research team included both anthropologists and archaeologists. Further anthropological and archaeological research is likely to yield further evidence of the richly diverse cultural values of the area. Between July 2018 - December 2019, researchers from James Cook University (JCU) in collaboration with postgraduate researchers from the University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) were commissioned by the United Nations Development Programme2 in conjunction with the Conservation, Environment Protection Authority to generate awareness of protected area planning processes and to facilitate the gazettal of four Community Protected Areas around Jacquinot Bay and Central Inland Pomio. These protected area processes are ongoing

Supporting addictions affected families effectively (SAFE): a mixed methods exploratory study of the 5-step method delivered in Goa, India, by lay counsellors

Aims: To explore the effect of the relatives’ drinking on their family members, and the preliminary impact of the 5-step method intervention on the adverse effect of the relatives’ drinking on their family members. Methods: In-depth interviews were conducted with eligible Affected Family Members (AFMs) (n = 30) to understand the effect of the relatives’ drinking on their family members. Subsequently, a different group of consecutive eligible AFMs (n = 21) received the five-step method from lay counsellors, with outcomes measured at baseline and 3 months after delivery of the first session, to examine the impact of the intervention on AFMs. Findings: In the in-depth interviews, the perceived impact of the relatives’ drinking on the AFM included substantial physical/emotional abuse, financial difficulties, shame, poor health, impaired interpersonal relationships and change in the AFM’s role in the family. In the case series, for AFMs who received at least one session of the intervention, there was significantly increased engaged coping, increased stress and increased professional social support; and in those who completed the intervention, there was significantly increased engaged coping, increased strain, and increased informal social support. Conclusions: Compared to developed countries, stresses experienced by AFMs in our study are somewhat qualitatively different. The impact of an un-adapted five-step method intervention is less helpful than found elsewhere; hence an adapted version of the five-step method which is responsive to the realities of the cultural context may be better suited to Indian settings

An investigation of anticoccidial veterinary drugs as emerging organic contaminants in groundwater

peer-reviewedIntensification of the food production system to meet increased global demand for food has led to veterinary pharmaceuticals becoming a critical component in animal husbandry. Anticoccidials are a group of veterinary products used to control coccidiosis in food-producing animals, with primary prophylactic use in poultry production. Excretion in manure and subsequent land-spreading provides a potential pathway to groundwater. Information on the fate and occurrence of these compounds in groundwater is scant, therefore these substances are potential emerging organic contaminants of concern. A study was carried out to investigate the occurrence of anticoccidial compounds in groundwater throughout the Republic of Ireland. Twenty-six anticoccidials (6 ionophores and 20 synthetic anticoccidials) were analysed at 109 sites (63 boreholes and 46 springs) during November and December 2018. Sites were categorised and selected based on the following source and pathway factors: (a) the presence/absence of poultry activity (b) predominant aquifer category and (c) predominant groundwater vulnerability, within the zone of contribution (ZOC) for each site. Seven anticoccidials, including four ionophores (lasalocid, monensin, narasin and salinomycin) and three synthetic anticoccidials (amprolium, diclazuril and nicarbazin), were detected at 24% of sites at concentrations ranging from 1 to 386 ng L−1. Monensin and amprolium were the two most frequently detected compounds, detected at 15% and 7% of sites, respectively. Multivariate statistical analysis has shown that source factors are the most significant drivers of the occurrence of anticoccidials, with no definitive relationships between occurrence and pathway factors. The study found that the detection of anticoccidial compounds is 6.5 times more likely when poultry activity is present within the ZOC of a sampling point, compared to the absence of poultry activity. This work presents the first detections of these contaminants in Irish groundwater and it contributes to broadening our understanding of the environmental occurrence and fate of anticoccidial veterinary products.Science Foundation Irelan